An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana to one year and eight months in prison for tax evasion, writes WSJ’s Manuela Mesco and Giada Zampano. Read the full WSJ story here.

The pair’s lawyer, Massimo Dinoia, said they planned to appeal, adding that the case is “groundless.” . . . . . Read More »

U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George

If you see something, say something.

That’s not just a post-9/11 security mantra. It’s an order handed down by Congress to inspectors general, who are required to blow the whistle as soon as they become aware of a serious problem inside an agency.

That raises the question: Was the Treasury inspector general who conducted the IRS targeting probe obligated to keep Congress in the loop about its findings?

Each Inspector General shall report immediately to the head of the establishment involved whenever the Inspector General becomes aware of particularly serious or flagrant problems, abuses, or deficiencies relating to the administration of programs and operations of such establishment. The head of the establishment shall transmit any such report to the appropriate committees or subcommittees of Congress within seven calendar days, together with a report by the head of the establishment containing any comments such head deems appropriate.

In other words, when an inspector general discovers a serious problem, he has to brief the relevant agency head, who has seven days to notify Congress about the issue. . . . Read More »

Under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, you can't be compelled to testify against yourself in a criminal case.

But can you forfeit your Fifth Amendment protections by saying anything at all?

On Wednesday, Lois Lerner, a high-ranking Internal Revenue Service official, drew the ire of Republican lawmakers at a congressional hearing when she invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination, but only after asserting her innocence.

“I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws, I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee,” said Ms. Lerner, facing questions about what role she played in the targeting of conservative groups.

Republicans accused her of having and eating her cake. “You don't get to tell your side of the story and then not be subjected to cross-examination,” Rep. Trey Gowdy told Ms. Lerner, who had earlier added that she was proud of her work at the agency.

The disclosure last week by a high-ranking Internal Revenue Service official that the agency had improperly targeted conservative groups wasn’t an impromptu confession but an orchestrated roll out of damaging news.

When Lois Lerner, who runs the exempt-organizations unit at the IRS, acknowledged at a tax attorney panel in Washington that her agency had singled out tea-party groups for special scrutiny, she was responding to a question she had planted a day earlier.

The day before she spoke on the panel, Ms. Lerner asked Celia Roady (right), a veteran Washington tax lobbyist and IRS adviser, to raise the issue at the conference at the Grand Hyatt.

“I agreed to do so, and she then gave me the question that I asked at the meeting the next day. We had no discussion thereafter on the topic of the question, nor had we. . . . . Read More »

The firestorm of controversy surrounding the Internal Revenue Service was ignited by a question posed at an American Bar Association tax conference in Washington, D.C.

When high-ranking IRS official Lois Lerner acknowledged on Friday at the Grand Hyatt that her department gave conservative groups more scrutiny she was responding to a question from one of Washington’s most prominent tax-exempt specialists, Celia Roady (right), a lobbyist who. . . . . Read More »

The Internal Revenue Service is in hot water for its special scrutiny of conservative groups, such as those with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names and others, including ones worried about government spending, debt or taxes, according to new details of a government probe.

The concern is that the IRS subjected tea party groups to a higher level scrutiny than others in reviewing tax-exempt applications.

Normally, though, the IRS is supposed to draw lines of distinction between “social-welfare” non-profits and political groups.

Back in 2007, New York eyed Amazon sales taxes as an untapped source of revenue. The Supreme Court in the early 1990s ruled that a state can compel a company to fork over sales taxes, but only if the company has a physical presence in the state.

The challenge was figuring out a way to get around the Commerce Clause when it came to an out-of-state online retailer like Amazon.com that has no brick-and-mortar outlets.

New York was able to rope in Amazon.com by passing a law. . . . . Read More »

A former Kirkland & Eillis LLP bankruptcy and restructuring partner pleaded guilty to underreporting his taxes by more than $2 million on Tuesday.

Thomas L. Freedman, 65 years old, claimed to be the sole proprietor of a law practice in Dutchess County, N.Y., and in New York City, when he was actually a senior partner at “a major United States law firm,” according to federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

“I accept responsibility for the serious underreporting of my taxes,” Mr. Freedman said at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. . . . . Read More »

About Law Blog

The Law Blog covers the legal arena’s hot cases, emerging trends and big personalities. It’s brought to you by lead writer Jacob Gershman with contributions from across The Wall Street Journal’s staff. Jacob comes here after more than half a decade covering the bare-knuckle politics of New York State. His inside-the-room reporting left him steeped in legal and regulatory issues that continue to grab headlines.

A federal judge in Manhattan rejected a bid by the conservative advocacy group Citizens United to stop New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from requiring that charities disclose to him their major donors.

Concerns about a gender gap in the legal profession tend to focus on issues like pay, billing rates and who makes partner. A new study by the American Bar Association looks inside the federal courtroom to see who's trying cases.